BP, The Gulf, and the Assault of God

14 07 2010

by Brian Walsh

The doctors seemed totally incapable of stemming the flow. This wound was too deep. The blood would not stop. The woman had been assaulted so violently that all of their medical emergency and trauma training was totally ineffective. This woman was dying. And all we could do was watch. Perhaps weep. Undoubtedely keep thinking up new techniques to save her. But in the meantime, all we could do was watch.

So we set up a camera in the emergency room where she was lying. We focused the lens on the wound where the blood continued to seep. We set up a 24/7 vigil and we posted it as a lives feed on the internet. Millions of people around the world logged in. At first they also wept. Then they stopped watching the feed around the clock, but only tuned in once in a while to see how this woman was doing. Read the rest of this entry »


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Between Confidence and Fear

6 04 2010

by Brian Walsh

Folk who visit this site know that much of what we write about here arises out of a shared worship experience called “Wine Before Breakfast.” This year the community began with allowing Romans to shape our liturgy and our imaginations, and then concluded with Mark’s telling of the story of Holy Week for Lent and Easter. That meant that we began with Romans 1 and ended with Mark 16. That juxtaposition gave rise to this meditation.

“Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ.”

Do you remember those six words? That is how we began Wine Before Breakfast last September.
…“Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ.”

Paul, writing to the very heart of the empire,
…identifies himself with nothing less (or more)
…than a slave of Jesus Christ.

Not a citizen of the empire,
and sure as hell, not a slave of the emperor,
…but a slave of Jesus Christ.

Six words into his letter to the Romans,
…and he has already put them on notice.
…This was “in your face stuff.”

And it didn’t stop there. Read the rest of this entry »


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A Pastoral Letter for Holy Week 2010

28 03 2010

Every year Brian writes a pastoral letter to the Wine Before Breakfast community at the University of Toronto. In his letter he calls the community to a holy observance of Passion Week. This year the WBB community read Mark’s telling of Holy Week throughout the 40 days of Lent. We’re sharing that letter with the broader Empire Remixed community.

by Brian Walsh

My beloved sisters and brothers in Christ.

For the forty days of Lent we have dwelt with Jesus during Holy Week. For five weeks we have allowed Mark’s gospel to lead us deeply into one week. The week of weeks. The week that is at the heart of our faith. Passion Week.

That week is now upon us. Our Lenten journey has prepared us for this week. It has been an intense Lent for us, but now it gets even more intense.

It is all about bearing witness. Can we bear witness to these horrific events that are at the same time our very salvation? Can we “bear” to bear witness? Have we got that kind of courage, that kind of faithfulness? Read the rest of this entry »


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Inclusive, Particular and Being Down and Out in Austin.

23 03 2010

by Brian Walsh

On March 17 I had the incredible honour of speaking along with my co-author, Steven Bouma-Prediger at the “National Symposium on Homelessness” in Austin, Texas. This event, hosted by a dynamic ministry called “Mobile Loaves and Fishes,” brought together around 250 people who either are involved in homelessness issues and services or who were formerly homeless for a day of reflection on “What is Home and How do we get there?”

In my presentation I spoke about how home is always rooted in memory. There is no homecoming apart from story. And I then offered a telling of the biblical story of home, homelessness and homecoming as a powerful story that could sustain both on the street ministries and transformed social policy.

Now I knew that a number of folks in the room were not Christian, but chose to be explicitly and openly Christian anyway. The fact that the majority of people involved with helping their homeless neighbours are indeed Christian and that a majority of the homeless in Austin also identify themselves as Christian, together with the fact that I am a Christian and can only speak honestly and openly from a transparently Christian perspective, I figured that non-Christians in the room might be willing to hear a take on the biblical story that just might be new and perhaps even appealing to them. Read the rest of this entry »


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The Holy Dove and a Crown of Thorns

22 02 2010

by Brian Walsh

I was teaching for the Creation Care Studies Program in Belize this past week. Sylvia and I team up to teach a course on “God and Nature” that attempts to engender a biblical imagination for creation care amongst our undergraduate students participating in this study abroad program.

One of the requirements of my half of the course was a “reflection paper.” But I emphasized that I was more interested in “reflection” than in “paper” and gave the students freedom to be as creative as they liked. One danced, another created an installation piece, another read poems, there was a photographically shaped creative prose piece, and one student produced a crown of thorns. This short reflection is inspired by that student’s contribution. Read the rest of this entry »


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Gratitude: Some Thoughts for Yonge Street Mission

1 02 2010

by Brian Walsh

In a culture of perpetual dissatisfaction,
…a culture where you are what you have made yourself,
…a culture of ceaseless craving
……for new experiences,
……for consumer goods,
……for power,
……for sex,
……for wealth,
……for status,
…a culture of hyperactive frenzy and anxiety,
…a culture of paralysis and numbness,
……in this culture,
……gratitude can set us free.

Gratitude receives life as a gift,
…not a self-made accomplishment.

Gratitude is rooted in deep satisfaction,
…not held captive to dissatisfaction.

Gratitude replaces isolation
…with community. Read the rest of this entry »


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Whole Bodies, Transformed Minds

18 01 2010

by Brian Walsh

Dr. King once said that Christians are too often like thermometers, registering and reflecting the temperature all around them, when in fact we are called to thermostats, influencing and changing the spiritual, moral, and cultural atmosphere of the society in which we live.

Kind of sounds like the distinction between being “conformed to this world” or being “transformed by the renewing of our minds” that Paul’s talking about in Romans 12:

“I appeal to you, therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

And in our ministry we are unabashedly all about transformation. But we also stand with Paul (and King) by insisting that transformed “minds” without bodies presented as living sacrifices is a pious intellectualism that doesn’t really amount to very much. No, the whole point of a transformed mind is that we might be discerning people, perceiving in the midst of our day to day personal and professional lives what embodied discipleship looks like.

There is no mind/body dualism for Paul. And there is no possibility of separating worship from this whole matter of transformed minds and sacrificial bodies either. Whole-bodied, mind-transformed, non-conformist living is precisely what worship is all about. Indeed, this way of living is worship!


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Advent IV :: Mary’s Magnificat

20 12 2009

by Brian Walsh

Like everyone else, she received the news of Elizabeth’s pregnancy with joy, wonder … and fear.

Joy that the barren had conceived.
Joy that an heir would be born.
Joy that Elizabeth’s womb would bear fruit.

Wonder because of the memories this evoked.
Wonder in the memory of Sarah, Rebekah and Hannah.
Wonder about whether God was on the move, whether the promises were to be fulfilled.

Promises and wonder.
Fulfilled dreams.
All bound up with a newly conceived child.

Maybe that is where the fear came from.
A child born into oppression.
A child born into captivity.
A child born into violence.
A child born while Herod is on the throne. Read the rest of this entry »


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Advent II :: Swords or Peace?

6 12 2009

by Brian Walsh

We had to wait for this. He wasn’t going to make any rash decisions. He had to hear from all of his advisors. There was a need to have all the evidence before him. Yes, this is a military issue. But just as importantly, if not more so, this is a political decision. You don’t rule without good ratings in the polls.

And so this week President Obama presented to the American people, to all of America’s allies and enemies, indeed, to the whole world, his strategy for Afghanistan. Thirty thousand more troops. An offensive surge to push back the Taliban and root out al Qaeda, a securing of the cities, and an expectation that the corrupt government of that country would get its act together and start carrying its military weight in this conflict.

And, of course, the President had to insist that this is not another Vietnam. I’m sorry, but the parallels are stunning. A weak, ineffectual local government, troop increases, military surge, the enemy taking refuge beyond the borders of the country involved, a losing war in the countryside requiring an emphasis on securing the population centres. It’s all there. We’ve seen this before.

Read the rest of this entry »


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No one Ever Said This Was Going to be Easy

22 11 2009

by Brian Walsh

So over at Wine Before Breakfast we’ve been hanging out with Paul and his letter to the Romans again. And this morning I offered these reflections on Romans 8.1-17. My indebtedness to Sylvia Keesmaat’s book Paul and His Story: (Re)Interpreting the Exodus Tradition (Sheffield, 1999) is clear.

I would recommend that you take a moment to read the Romans text (slowly and prayerfully) before launching into what I have on offer here.

No one ever said that this was going to be easy.
Not Paul’s letter to the Romans.
Not the faith that he there proposes.
Not the Jesus he calls us to follow.

I know that this stuff isn’t easy.
But if it were easy, it would be cheap.
Right?
I mean if it was any simpler,
then it wouldn’t likely be any more true
to the lives of those early believers in Rome
than it would be true of our own conflicted,
compromised,
complicit,
and contradictory lives.

Read the full text here.


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